1. THE KING OF JAZZ

2. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 Louis Armstrong was born in 1901, in a poor, black
section of New Orleans called Storyville. It was so
dangerous that its nickname was the “Battlefield”.
 Louis’ mother, Mayann, had to support her two
children by herself.
 Louis and his sister were often left with their
grandmother. Her name was Josephine, and she
had been a slave.

3. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 When Louis was about seven, he had a job selling
newspapers on street corners. Later, he went to work
for the Karnofskys. They were a Jewish family that had
come from Russia.

4. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 When Louis was older, he appeared in Juvenile
Court and was charged with firing a gun in a public
place. The judge was strict; he sent Louis to live at the
Colored Waifs’ Home for Boys.
 Professor Peter Davis taught him music at the Colored
Waifs’ Home for Boys. Here, Louis learned to play
music written by famous European composers from
the past such as Bach, Liszt and Mahler. Louis was so
good that Professor Davis made him leader of the
band.

5. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 On June 16, 1914, Louis left the Colored Waifs’ Home
for Boys and went to live with his father. While he was
with his father, he attended school through the fifth
grade. After completing fifth grade, he thought that he
was ready to support himself.

6. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 Louis became a great cornet player. People took notice
of him and the special way that he played music.
 On April 6, 1917, something happened that changed
the future of Louis’s life and the lives of many of the
other jazz musicians in New Orleans. The United
States entered World War I.
 His friend, Joe Oliver, packed his bags and went to
Chicago.

7. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 Louis began performing on boats that took day trips
from the Port of New Orleans. In 1920, he began to play
on the steamer “Dixie Belle”, which took long trips up
the Mississippi River.

8. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 Joe Oliver hadn’t forgotten about Louis, either. He
continued writing from Chicago, urging Louis to join
him. Finally, in 1922, Louis decided to go to Chicago.
 Louis became a cornetist in the King Oliver’s Band.
The band was a huge success.

9. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 Louis performed with the band at the famous
Roseland Ballroom on Broadway in New York City. It
was the first African-American band to perform there.
Most of the people who went to Roseland were white,
and they went to dance.

10. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 In December 1925, he joined an orchestra that played
background music for silent movies.
 Louis was playing cornet for a band leader named
Jimmy Taste. Jimmy needed another trumpet player
and he asked Louis to switch instruments. Louis
agreed and played trumpet for the rest of his life.

11. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 In 1927, Bing Crosby, a famous singer and movie star,
listened to Louis Armstrong’s scat recordings and
used scat vocals on his own records.

12. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 Tom Rockwell, Louis’ manager,, helped him get a job
in Harlem, New York, where he performed in a show
called Hot Chocolates. It was a huge success. Then it
moved to Broadway’s Hudson Theater.

13. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 In 1932 Louis took his first trip to England. When he
arrived, his nickname of “Satchelmouth” was
shortened to “Satchel”.
 In 1938, Louis wrote a song called “Jeepers Creepers”
for a movie of the same title. In the film, the horse was
wild and out of control until Louis sang to it. Louis
earned an Academy Award nomination for his
performance.

14. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 In December, 1941, the United States entered World
War II. Louis went overseas to entertain American
soldiers. Playing at military bases in Europe and Asia,
he helped bring the sound of jazz across the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans.

15. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 The war ended in 1945. So did the popularity of big
bands. Louis formed a small band called Louis
Armstrong and His All Stars.
 In 1949, TIME magazine featured a photograph of
Louis on the cover . It pictured him as the “King of
Jazz”. He was also crowned king of Mardi Gras in his
hometown of New Orleans. The mayor gave him the
keys to the city and he was welcomed as a local hero.

16. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 In 1963, he recorded the popular song “Hello Dolly”. By
1964, it was a smash hit, even more popular than the
Beatles song “She Loves You”.

17. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 His 1967 song, “What a Wonderful World”, also
became a hit all over the world. Unfortunately, Louis’s
health was failing and in September of 1968, he had a
serious heart attack.

18. LOUIS ARMSTRONG
 On July 6, Louis Armstrong died quietly in his sleep
with his wife, Lucille, by his side.
 President Richard Nixon called him “a free individual
spirit, and an artist of worldwide fame”.
 The joy Louis Armstrong felt in playing his trumpet
was strong, constant and unmistakable. He shared that
joy with listeners. His spirit lives on through jazz
musicians who came after him, and through the
beautiful music he created.

19. THANK YOU LOUIS, YOUR ARE THE BEST JAZZ
MUSICIAN FOREVER AND EVER